Does it seem like everyone in Sask. has ADHD? And can social media help you diagnose it?

Cierra Giesbrecht saw her own childhood in a new way after her daughter was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Two years ago, her daughter was going into Grade 1, and exhibiting behaviours that verged on extreme, including outbursts of anger.

When her daughter was diagnosed with ADHD, it was the starting point for her mother to see parallels with her own life as a kid, and into adulthood, becoming overstimulated or angry or compulsively spending money. That led to her own diagnosis with adult ADHD.

But social media was also a great help for her in understanding her own neurodiverse brain.

"TikTok gets a bad rap, but there are a lot of great professionals on there with a lot of different information; they break it down into ways that are digestible for the typical, average person," she told CBC's podcast This is Saskatchewan in its latest episode.

Dr. Stefan Brennan is a Saskatoon-based psychiatrist who's seen his own nine-year-old son watching clips on YouTube and TikTok that identify health issues like ADHD.

Social media has definitely helped amplify the message that people could be struggling with the disorder, he said. 

"That's not always necessarily a bad thing," he said. "When I started working with adult ADHD, it was very, very underdiagnosed and people often didn't know where to go or how to start looking at attentional and concentration and focus and hyperactivity issues because they were an adult."

At the same time, he cautions against using TikTok or social media as a reliable screening tool. People may see these social videos and suspect they have ADHD, but getting a diagnosis and finding effective treatment is the next step, he said. 

And people are increasingly getting diagnosed with ADHD, he said, with doctors also likely doing a better job of diagnosing it more effectively.

Currently, US and Canadian data suggests that between four to five per cent of the population might have ADHD, although Brennan says that number does seem to be increasing. The Student Wellness Centre at the University of Saskatchewan, for instance, reports that 7.3 per cent of their students have been diagnosed with ADHD. 

Getting a diagnosis as an adult

It's not uncommon for adults like Giesbrecht to realize they have ADHD when their own children see a health professional for behavioural issues, Brennan said.

"They really recognize that a lot of the same symptoms resonate with them, or maybe did in their own childhood, their school years, their university years or starting with work," he said, pointing to issues like focusing on a task or getting distracted. 

One complicating factor of using social media to diagnose ADHD is that it's very unlikely a person just has the one issue, but rather is likely to have other issues, like depression or anxiety, he said, adding that people may start to get frustrated because they're getting medication or counselling for those issues, but it just isn't addressing their problems. 

"ADHD is the part of the picture that just hasn't really been identified or treated," Brennan said.

Nailing down that she did indeed have ADHD was a game-changer for Giesbrecht, who was able to get on medication that helped her with her focus and handle overstimulation. 

"But it also gave me some validation for how I was feeling when I was growing up and why I was the way I was. Because oftentimes kids with ADHD are just labelled as bad, you know, troublemakers," she said.

"I finally kind of understand my brain a little bit more now."

This story is from the This is Saskatchewan podcast — your connection to the stories Saskatchewan is talking about. Every week, we cover local issues that matter. Hear the voices that are creating change, shaping policy and fuelling creativity in Saskatchewan.

Tune into This is Saskatchewan every Wednesday on CBC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.